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Women suffering from depression says God spoke to her through Radio Nuevo Tiempo

Maribel was about to commit suicide but God arrived in time to save her using Bolivia’s Adventist radio

Jan 12, 2018|Team ASN, Jessica Rodríguez|Cochabama, Bolivia

[Photo courtesy of the South American Division]

The Annual Council of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bolivia was held on November 27 and 28 at the new facilities of the Colporteur Student Development Institute, located at the Adventist University of Bolivia.

The different departments and institutions of the church presented reports on all the activities carried out throughout this year, always with the emphasis of the work in small groups within all the areas of the church.

To end the council, the New Time Communication Network Bolivia presented its report that culminated in the baptism of Maribel Arando Saita, who knew Christ through the radio.

Maribel was born on June 23, 1991 and is the mother of a two-year-old boy named Jafet. After the relationship with her partner failed, she entered a great depression to the point of trying to take her own life. It was at that moment of pain and despair that Maribel found Radio Nuevo Tiempo.

When Maribel changed dial of her radio, she heard a song that she felt was directed directly at her. "The song said exactly what I was living in that moment and I felt that God was speaking to me through that song that rightly titled -- I call your heart. I felt that God was calling me,” said Maribel moments before her baptism.

After she found the radio station Nuevo Tiempo she did not stop tuning in. She heard she could ask for free Bible courses on the radio and when she called to place her order, they invited her to visit the radio station since she lived in the same city.

The radio’s Bible School department was responsible for helping her complete the studies and to congregate her in a church near her town. "In the church, I felt at home and I found what I was looking for a long time," said Maribel.

Present during the baptism ceremony was Bruno Raso, vice president of the church in South America and host of the programs Revived by his Word and Believe in his Prophets, Jorge Rampogna, director of Radio Nuevo Tiempo in Spanish for all of South America, Jared Barrenechea, director of the Biblical School in South America, Patricio Olivares, director of Adventist Radio in Bolivia, and Johnny Mansilla, director of Escuela Biblica in Bolivia.

At the end of the baptism Maribel committed herself to bring hope to other people: "I want others who are in a difficult situation like the one I was in to know that there is hope and that God is the solution, I want to work and to commit myself to carry that message of hope to others,” said Maribel.